Yoon Jeongseop, CEO of the estate organization company "Charisma" (age 50), is creating a simple altar to honor the spirit of the deceased. Photo by Seungwook Park

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At 7:30 a.m. on November 29, at a villa in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Yoon Jeongseop, CEO of the estate organization company "Charisma" (age 50), opened the firmly closed door and, as if familiar with the process, first opened the window. He then unfolded a desk to create a simple altar and poured soju into a paper cup to honor the spirit of the deceased. The deceased, a woman in her 20s with no known relatives, was discovered by her landlord a week after her death. Police and local authorities identified her and searched extensively, but no family could be found.

Photo by Seungwook Park is organizing the belongings of the deceased at their home.

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That day, CEO Yoon sorted the belongings by category, such as clothes and scrap metal, and packed them into sacks. Items containing the deceased's personal information or documents were set aside separately. In the refrigerator, there were only delivery food containers such as tteokbokki and fried chicken, which the deceased seemed to have enjoyed during her lifetime. In the kitchen drawer, there were canned ham and instant rice. There was almost no evidence of home-cooked meals. A bottle of cooking oil found in a corner had expired over a year ago.

The deceased appeared to have been a young woman who lived diligently. In the album found during the sorting, there were multiple certificates, including a teaching certificate, a caregiver certificate, and a nursing assistant certificate. After graduating from college on her own, she worked as a daycare teacher until earlier this year. On the back pages of the album were letters from children she had taught, with messages like, "You are a teacher with fair skin and a beautiful smile. Thank you always," which lingered in the mind.

Although she was a beloved teacher to the children, at home she was completely alone. On the kitchen shelf, there were envelopes of antidepressants that had to be taken morning and night. CEO Yoon said, "Whenever I clean the rooms of young people who passed away alone, I always find antidepressants, as if by some unwritten rule," and added, "The deceased must have endured her pain alone, with no family to confide in," expressing his sorrow.

The antidepressants that the deceased took during their lifetime are accumulated. Photo by Seungwook Park

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Recently, traces of her job search while receiving unemployment benefits were also found. On a note on her desk, she had written down resolutions for a comeback, such as "sense of challenge, responsibility, look for school-linked education."

Notes that the deceased seemed to have written during their lifetime in an attempt to make a comeback. Photo by Seungwook Park

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On the veranda, laundry that had been hung out not long ago was still there, mostly pajamas. While sorting her clothes, dozens of sets of pajamas were found. Near the end of the sorting, a note was discovered with "Mother's name: ○○○, Mother's address: ○○○" written in small letters. Although her resident registration listed "no family," she had apparently found and carefully recorded information about her biological mother somewhere during her lifetime. It is unknown whether she ever met her mother while she was alive.

As a result of checking the number of unclaimed deaths by age group in 229 basic local governments nationwide, the number of unclaimed deaths under the age of 40 surged from 68 in 2016 to 114 in 2020, maintaining a level of over 100 consistently.

Last year, 116 people, and this year from January to May, 48 people quietly ended their lives.

Among them, those who had no relatives or acquaintances at all accounted for about 30% of the total.

In 2021, it was 32.9% (28 out of 85), in 2022, 34.0% (32 out of 94), in 2023, 31.1% (33 out of 106), last year 29.6% (29 out of 98), and from January to May this year, 35.7% (15 out of 42).

Every year, dozens of people have passed away alone.

If you are struggling with depression or other difficult issues, or if you know a family member or acquaintance who is, you can receive 24-hour professional counseling through the suicide prevention hotline ☎109 or the suicide prevention SNS counseling service "Madeleine."